Gendering citizenship education. Feminist-relational approaches on political education

Abstract

Questioning gender – by understanding that questions about gender are political - is one of the core implications of feminist epistemologies. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to how a gender perspective can question some dominant framings on citizenship education, and to discuss different ways in which feminist theory can help us to democratise political education practice. We begin by conceptualising politics as a relational practice, a place “in-between”, in which power is understood as concrete embodied actions, and the personal is recognized as political. We then examine three key notions associated with political education: citizenship, participation, and rights through the lens of feminist-relational theory, we question their possible shortcomings and identify political education paradigms that enable not only critical understanding, but also transgression. We conclude suggesting ways in which feminist-relational theory can help us to reconsider political education, further democratising who we care for, what we care for and how we care.

Keywords

• political education
• citizenship education
• gender perspective
• feminist epistemology